Vol. XXIII, No. 5 



WASHINGTON 



May, 1912 



Tr 



ATIONAL 

 ®(SmAIPIHIII€ 



IrH 



D 



THE WHITE SHEEP, GIANT MOOSE, AND 



SMALLER GAME OF THE KENAI 



PENINSULA, ALASKA 



By George Shiras, 3rd 



Author of ' ' Photographing Wild Game with Flashlight and Camera, ' 

 "One Season's Game Bag with the Camera," and "A Flash- 

 light Story op an Albino Porcupine," etc., in 

 THE National Geographic Magazine 



FOR a number of years the writer 

 had in view a trip to northwestern 

 Alaska, to study the big-game ani- 

 mals and certain varieties of non-migra- 

 tory birds, and where the camera, rather 

 than the rifle, was to capture the perma- 

 nent trophies of the hunt. 



Experience had shown, long before, 

 that it was not how far one traveled 

 away from home, or how extensive and 

 primitive the country, which necessarily 

 meant success in the pursuit of wild Hfe. 

 Well illustrating this are the virgin for- 

 ests and the burnt-over, second-growth 

 country immediately north of Lake 

 Huron or Lake Superior, now largely 

 ■deserted by the fur traders, the Indian 

 trappers, and numerous camp-followers. 

 ■ Here one may find a greater variety 

 and abundance of big game in a week, 

 and sometimes in a single day, than might 

 be encountered during an arduous canoe 

 journey of several months on any of the 

 many open streams leading from the lake 

 country to Hudson Bay. All these water- 

 ways have been traveled for centuries 

 and the remaining game driven back into 

 distant quarters. Because of the inhos- 

 pitable winter climate, the lack of proper 

 food conditions and shelter, most of the 



big game in Ontario, except caribou, is 

 found on the southern watersheds drain- 

 ing into the Great Lakes. 



So with Alaska. The reports of 

 miners, trappers, government explorers, 

 and sportsmen, covering many years of 

 persistent research, have shown very 

 clearly that the mere distance traversed 

 in this vast country often meant but little 

 in regard to big game, since it was a mat- 

 ter of ordinary occurrence for persons 

 to travel a thousand or more miles on 

 the Yukon and some of its tributaries 

 without seeing a single specimen of the 

 larger animals. 



One might also journey for a month 

 with a pack-train into the interior, cross- 

 ing the rough and sodden tundra, the 

 willow-tangled swamps, climbing over 

 the rock slides of disintegrating moun- 

 tains, cutting out trails along the thicket- 

 rimmed banks of the larger streams, or 

 wading waist deep the swirling, ice- 

 chilled waters flowing from the melting 

 snowbanks and glaciers of the upper 

 valleys, and during all these long days 

 of unremitting toil and miles of steady 

 progress only a few grouse or an occa- 

 sional porcupine might fall to the rifle of 

 the weary and ever-hungry traveler. 



